insert "seven," for the number of delegates to
be assigned to Baltimore and Frederick counties
The fractions of these two counties were 3,631,
and 4,082, being more than half the ratio. He
did not understand why his friend from Freder-
ick, (Mr. Biser,) who was upon the watch-tower
to guard the interest of that county, had not been
the first to demand this amendment.
If this amendment was not adopted, any prece-
dent principle of right, upon which apportion-
ment in Congress and every where else was
founded, would be disregarded and subverted,
and for what? To subserve the purposes of Al-
legany and Washington counties. The consider-
ation designed to be given for this unhallowed
surrender of the manifest rights of Baltimore
and Frederick counties, will be too apparent
from the voles and proceedings of this Conven-
tion to need any explanation from me.
Mr. TUCK raised the question of order, whether
this amendment was not in substance, precise-
ly the same as that just voted upon.
The PRESIDENT ruled the amendment to be out
of order.
Mr. MITCHELL. I move so to amend the sec-
tion, that each county in the State shall have
one delegate, and the city of Baltimore 50; and I
want to speak five minutes upon that. (Laugh-
ter.)
Mr. McHENRY raised the question of order,
inasmuch as the tendency of the proposition was
to throw ridicule upon the subject before the
Convention.
The President overruled the point of order.
Mr. MITCHELL, It may be out of order to
make speeches here; but what do they do at the
other end of the capitol? They meet together,
a few of them, and form a Constitution for the
people of Maryland. Are we to submit to this
without being heard, by calling the previous
question, and cutting off debates I, for one, will
never do it, sir Sooner will I see the whole
State of Maryland sunk in the Atlantic ocean,
than I will be dictated to by a party caucus at
the other end of the capitol. We have been
charged with holding a caucus here, by which
you were placed in the chair you now occupy.
We were driven to hold this caucus, by the ac-
tion of the gentleman from Harford and his as-
sociates. It cannot be denied. I will tell you
another thing, Mr. President. I came here as a
Whig, nominated as such, and I am going to bat-
tle it to the last moment, while there is hope
of its existence in the Slate of Maryland. I have
one word yet to say to the people of Baltimore.
That city claims that she pays two thirds of the
taxes of the State. I tell you that she does not
pay one cent. She is nothing but brick and morter.
And whence do they deriqe their means of
support? It is from the agricultural interest of
the State of Maryland, and from the railroads
and canals, built at the expense of the State.—
They build up their palaces in Baltimore; take |
all our money when they can get it; buy up our
grain at a reduced price, and sell it for a larger
one. They make the money, and through our
means are prevented from starving, and enabled
to make fortunes. The city of Baltimore has
not a single particle of a claim to more repre-
sentation. But ill 1836, in our generosity, we
gave them a representation equal to the largest
county, when we could easily have prevented it,
There is another thing of which I would like to
speak. New York, Pennsylvania, and other
States, have large inland towns, to counteract
the influence controlling the great cities—
Here the hammer fell, and Mr. M. withdrew
his amendment,
The question recurred upon adopting the amend-
ment moved by Mr. FIERY.
Mr. TUCK demanded the yeas and nays ;
Which were ordered;
And being taken, resulted—yeas 46—nays 47,
as follows:
Affirmative.—Messrs. Howard, Buchanan, Bell,
Welch, Chandler, Ridgely, Lloyd, Colston, Con-
stable, Chambers, of Cecil, Miller, McLane, Spen-
cer, Grason, George, Wright, Thomas, Shriver,
Johnson, Gaither, Biser, Annan, McHenry, Ma-
graw, Nelson, Thawley, Stewart, of Caroline,
Hardcastle, Stewart, of Balt city, Sherwood, of
Baltimore city, Presstman, Ware, Fiery, John
Newcomer Harbine, Michael Newcomer. Brew-
er, Anderson, Weber, Hollyday, Slicer, Fitzpat-
rick. Parke, Shower, Cockey and Brown—46.
Negative—Messrs. Chapman, President. Mor-
gan. Blakistone, Dent, Hopewell, Ricaud, Lee,
Chambers, of Kent, Mitchell, Donaldson, Dor-
sey, Wells, Randall, Kent, Sellman, Weems,
Dalrymple, Bond, Sollers, Brent, of Charles,
Merrick, Jenifer, John Dennis, James. U. Den-
nis, Crisfield, Williams, Hicks, Goldsborough,
Eccleston, Phelps, Bowie, Tuck, Sprigg, McCub-
bin, Bowling, Dirickson, McMaster, Hearn,
Fooks, Jacobs Sappington, Stephenson Gwinn,
Brent, of Baltimore city, Kilgour, Waters and
Smith—47.
So the amendment was rejected.
Mr. JOHNSON then moved to amend said report
of the committee on representation by inserting;
in the place of the second section the following :
The House of Delegates shall be composed of
seventy-five members, to be apportioned among
the several counties and city of Baltimore, pur-
suant to the ratios herein provided; according to
their several numbers as shewn by the recent
census of the United States, to be determined by
adding to the whole number of free persons, in-
cluding those bound to service for a term of
years, three-fifths of all other persons, and allow-
ing to each county one additional delegate for a
fraction exceeding one half of the ratio, but each
county shall be entitled to at least two delegates.
The ratio shall be one delegate to every six thou-
sand inhabitants of the said county and city, un-
til the number of the House of Delegates shall be
seventy-two, and thereafter the ratio shall be one |
